PORTO RICO, THE GATE OF RICHES
Photograph by Frederick E. Cook
GATHERING COFFEE NEAR CIALES
Most of the coffee plantations are situated in the interior, on the foothills and lower slopes
of the central mountains. The coffee harvest of Porto Rico is long drawn out. The first
berries are gathered as early as July and the season does not close until February.
With more laborers than there is work
to be done, unemployment is a perennial
evil, and a job is like an heirloom, to be
handed down from generation to genera
tion, whenever possible.
Usually the plantation laborer and his
entire family go barefoot because there
are no funds with which to buy shoes.
The young boys in the rural districts
commonly run about with less than the
proverbial fig leaf to clothe them and
suffer not at all, thanks to the glorious
climate.
Food, perforce, is both simple and
scarce. Rice and beans, with a little bit
of salt cod, appear on the table when the
wage-earners are employed; but these are
imported and cost money, so they disap
pear when the job ends. Then bananas,
sweet potatoes, and native vegetables
raised on their small patches of ground
must tide the families over until another
period of employment begins.
The United States Department of Agri
culture is trying to induce the natives to
raise Belgian hares. The rapidity with
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